When the week is all said and done, the ISU volleyball team will know where it sits halfway through the Big 12 schedule.

Sitting at 4-2 in Big 12 play entering Wednesday’s match with No. 8 Texas, the No. 22 Cyclones (10-6, 4-2 Big 12) will find out this week where they stand. How the team finishes the season might come down to the performance of its outside hitters.

“Their stats right now compared to how they were a month ago

are much, much improved,” said

ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “I’m excited about how they’re playing, that’s going to be key from here on out.”

In a match against Baylor on Sept. 22, the ISU coaching staff challenged outside hitter Victoria Hurtt to

be more aggressive after she missed a ball.

By the end of the match Hurtt was heeding that advice. In the match Hurtt collected 14 kills to go along with a .444 hitting percentage, her best of the season.

Since then, the numbers for Hurtt and the team’s other outside hitters have continued to improve. The team has worked on out-of-system sets to help the players be more aggressive.

“It’s not always a perfect set,” Johnson-Lynch said. “They’ve been doing a lot of work on getting their feet to that ball and still taking an aggressive swing rather than just tipping the ball over.”

Outside hitter Mackenzie Bigbee — who currently leads the team averaging 3.07 kills per set — had been getting high sets all season, and now is getting low sets. That change has come as other teams make adjustments to defend the freshman.

“Obviously people have figured out that I’ve been a terminator — that I’ve been successful — so I’m seeing a lot more double blocks,” Bigbee said.

In addition to altering Bigbee’s strategy, outside hitter Rachel Hockaday has been moved around more frequently. Hockaday is third on the team averaging 2.48 kills per set.

Being more aggressive has payed off for Hurtt as the sophomore is averaging 2.82 kills per set this season compared to 2.54 kills per set last season. As a team the Cyclones are averaging 13.7 kills per set this season, just off their 14.2 kills per set mark from last season’s Elite Eight team.

“I think it’s just being confident in myself and knowing I have the ability to do it,” Hurtt said of her improved play. “Then going out there and performing every time and not taking a point off.”

Five different players have led the team in kills in any of its 16 matches this season. The most times any player has led the Cyclones in kills has been five.

“It’s not necessarily going to be one person every night, we have a lot of offensive weapons that we can choose from,” Bigbee said. “One night Hurtt might be doing better so she might get more sets, which is good that we have all of those options to go to.”